Cynthia Huff Johnson

Cynthia Huff Johnson earned a B.S. Magna Cum Laude in Music Therapy from Tennessee Technological University and a Masters in Music Performance from Lee University. She subsequently studied voice privately for 3 years with Elga Jones Setzer of Hickory, North Carolina. She has received numerous awards, including the TMTA Wultizer Collegiate Artist Award, Winner of the NCMTA Vocal Competition, and Winner of the NATS Mid-Atlantic Regional Competition, graduate women’s division.

Cynthia is currently Director of Music at Broad Street United Methodist Church in Cleveland, where she has served since 1995. She has performed recitals and as soprano soloist for church and community concerts in Tennessee and the Carolinas for major works including Handel’s Messiah, Mendelsohn’s Elijah, and the Requiems of Brahms, Faure’, Rutter, and Huff. She has performed various operatic roles including Musetta in Puccini's La Boheme, Angelica in Suor Angelica, and Rosalinda in Strauss' Die Fledermaus.She debuted with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera in January 2008 playing the role of The Sandman in Hansel and Gretel. She has sung with the Chattanooga Choral Arts since 2005.

Cynthia is a member of National Association for Teachers of Singing, The American Choral Director’s Association, the Fellowship of United Methodists in Worship Arts, and the Choristers Guild.

The primary focus of the Department of Musicianship Studies is providing curricular and co-curricular experiences for music majors pursuing emphases in Church Music, Music Business, and the Music in the Liberal Arts.

Faculty Spotlight

DR. RON BRENDEL

Professor of Music

Dr. Ron Brendel joined Lee's School of Music in 2005 where he teaches
voice and graduate vocal pedagogy.

Brendel made his
Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 in Mozart's Coronation Mass. His wide oratorio
repertoire includes Handel, Bach, Mozart and Haydn, and he has appeared
with the Vero Beach Choral Society, the Pensacola Choral Society, the Imperial
Symphony Orchestra (Lakeland, Florida), and the Central Florida Bach Festival,
among others. He has also been a featured soloist with the Florida Lyric Opera,
at the Bar Harbor Arts Festival and at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center,
and the Chattanooga Bach Choir. He has appeared as Goro (Madama Butterfly),
Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Frederic
(The Pirates of Penzance), and Nanki-Poo (The Mikado) among other roles.

As an afficionado of
the vocal music of Benjamin Britten, Brendel has presented papers about various
aspects of that repertoire in a variety of scholarly and performance settings,
from New Zealand to the US and England.

He is married to
coloratura soprano Chery Brendel, and they are the proud parents of Anna Marie.

Academics

The Academic Sector is made up of six colleges and schools: the College
of Arts & Sciences, the Helen DeVos College of Education, the School of Business, the
School of Music, the School of Religion, and the School of Nursing.